Day one Morecambe to Settle

 Day one of our PLANNED cycle tour, I am very happy to be here and excited to get going.

Firstly, a little cruise along the seafront to enjoy the beautiful views and the statue of Eric and his chunky seagull friends. 

What a beautiful day, and a great flat start along the side of the estuary to Lancaster, then up into the rolling countryside heading east. 

We spent most of the day skirting the Forest of Bowland, and took a detour up a steep hill to see the Great Stone of Fourstones.

It is a huge boulder that was left behind about 25,000 years ago when the Ice Age melted and carried rocks with it. This one is called an erratic boulder, I think because it is enormous and wouldn't be expected to be where it is.

It is on its own, near the top of a very high hill with no obvious reason to be there. Also, the ancient name of Fourstones indicates that there was also three others at one time, but where are they?

We weren't too concerned about the history, and climbed the uneven steps to the top. We had a quick look at graffiti carved into it from the 1,600s. Just names really, no different from what people do today.

On our way again and back to the route, with fantastic views of Ingleborough in the distance. 

Early afternoon and we reach the sign for the Yorkshire Dales National Park. Quite surprised to reach it so early in our journey as we are on a five day cycle across the Red rose and White rose counties, and we have already done the Red one.

A bit more cycling, up hill and down dale, before a final descent into Settle, our overnight stop. 

Day zero of the Way of the Roses

 Set off from Bath for a nice relaxed cycle to Bristol Parkway station for our journey up to Morecambe.

All went to plan and the train was on time, with just a bit of stress getting the bikes and luggage on board.

Good journey, just a few minutes late arriving at our change over in Birmingham. There was apparently something wrong with the train and everyone else also had to get off there too and board a replacement train for the rest of their journey.

The train from Birmingham to Lancaster was on time, but lots of confusion about which platform it was on and a more stressful and last minute loading of the bikes.

No real worries though and on our way again, however then the train stopped at Preston because of a fire on the line ahead of us. Waited around for a while and then we all had to leave the train as it was now cancelled.

Darren took this news quite well, and that we were on a cycling holiday so why not just add an unexpected 30 miles to the journey at 4.30pm?

I didn't take it quite so well as I had expected to spend the late afternoon strolling along the seafront with an Ice cream enjoying a relaxing day before the start of our bike tour.

We set off and I did calm down a bit and see the logic of not being mad about cycling on a cycling holiday.

But then on a speedy bit, a bee or wasp hit my head and somehow got stuck in my sunglasses, buzzed really loudly and then stung my face.

I hit it hard and sent my glasses flying across the road and Darren didn't hear my scream and disappeared into the distance!!

It hurt and rather set back my improving mood, but of course, I had to carry on.

The route was then genuinely pretty, but I was very pleased to reach Morecambe at 7.15pm and we found a chip shop. It only took cash and I only had £10 so we couldn't afford fish, but we spent every penny on chips and gravy and ate it on the seafront.

Last morning in Paris

We went on a lovely walk through the city and then along a canal that we have never seen before.

After stopping for the obligatory coffee and cakes we arrived at the Notre Dame for a guided tour of the exterior.

Our guide was excellent and told us all about it's history, and if course, the recent fire.

It happened in 2019 and all of the work was supposed to be finished by last year, but as can be seen, it's not done yet.

Our guide tried to tell us about various miracles that saved parts of the building from the fire, but I wasn't impressed. A couple of examples were that as renovations were taking place at the time of the fire, various famous statues had been removed a few days earlier from the roof so were therefore saved.

Also that firemen managed to stop the fire reaching giant bells in the towers that weighed up to 13 tons each. If these had fallen they may have caused the whole of the front of the building to collapse.

The cause of the fire is still a bit controversial, but what is definitely known is that the security guard in charge at the time misunderstood the fire alarm when it went off and looked in the wrong place, neither did he phone the fire brigade as he should have done. By the time more alarms went off and he did phone them they were delayed in getting to the building because of terrible traffic.

The fire had therefore took hold in the roof by then and burnt for many hours.

In my opinion, the miracle would have been that none of this need never have happened if the guard had done things right at the beginning.

Moving swiftly on, our final sight was of the Pont Neuf bridge.

We didn't go through it but it has been transformed into a temporary prehistoric icy cave and looked absolutely superb. Unfortunately it got a bit ripped in a storm a couple of weeks ago, but it was incredible, almost miraculous.

Paris

 The weather was beautiful and Daz had designed a brilliant 14 kilometres walk for today. After catching a metro and bus, we started at the obvious place.

The whole area is pedestrianised and we spent ages taking photos and wandering around. It would have been great to lift a bike over our heads to recreate the iconic Remco moment, but that wasn't possible, although we did pose with the Olympic rings.

Then the day just slipped away as we stopped for breakfast, coffee, lunch, boating lake, photos, etc.

Our hotel is in the Montmartre district and we could see glimpses of the Sacré-Coeur in the distance.

In the late afternoon we went on a guided walking and snacking tour of the area. We were the only two people on it and Maria our guide was lovely.

She told us lots of stories about the artists who used to live in the locally when it was very poor and cheap. These included Van Gogh, Picasso, Toulouse Lautrec and Edith Piaf.

The snacks were good too. Whilst eating and chatting we gradually climbed the hill and she left us at the top next to the beautiful basilica.

London to Paris

 An exciting 24 hours as we caught the afternoon train to London then went to a show - Titanique.

Quite a weird concept with a comedy musical about Celine Dion and the famous disaster, but the audience loved it and cheered and laughed all the way through.

In the morning we ran a huge distance along the canals near to our hotel in Paddington.

Great views all the way, and we turned back at the bench where Jackson Lamb from Slow Horses met his boss for secret meetings.

Back to the hotel for a quick shower and then up to the Eurostar terminal. Check in and passport control took about five minutes, so we had loads of time in the lounge.

By accident we timed our arrival very well because we just had time to get breakfast before they cleared it away, and then they brought out the snacks and wine.

Hungry after our run we managed to eat a good amount of both before heading for our 12.31 train.

Off the other side at Gare du Nord and we walked to our hotel. Not much later we were on our way to another show.

Not at the Moulin Rouge, although just around the corner. The MR was fully booked, but there are other venues doing the same sort of show, and ours was very glamorous.

We had a great seat and ordered a bottle of Champagne. The atmosphere was great and the show really good and colourful.

The can can and a fantastic guy in a bathtub were the highlights, but unfortunately, absolutely no photos were allowed.

Kelston Mills

 Got up really early this morning to enjoy a beautiful misty sunrise.

Then later in the day in full sunshine.